Cops seek nod on sprayer

New Delhi, Feb. 20: Delhi police have written to the Lok Sabha secretariat seeking permission to register a case against L. Rajagopal, who unleashed a burst of pepper spray inside the House last week.

Yesterday, Ponnam Prabhakar, a pro-Telangana Congress MP from Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh, had lodged a complaint with Parliament Street police station against Rajagopal and Telugu Desam Party member Venugopala Reddy.

“We have written to the Lok Sabha secretariat seeking permission to register a case against the two expelled MPs. Police have no jurisdiction as the incident had taken place inside Parliament and we cannot act on the complaint unless we get the secretariat’s nod,” said a police officer. “We got an oral intimation from the privileges committee of the Lok Sabha to begin a probe based on the complaint from Prabhakar but we are waiting for a written complaint.”

A case may be registered under IPC Section 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and Section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) if the police get the go-ahead.

Prabhakar was one of the three MPs who complained of suffocation and irritation in their eyes after Rajagopal’s spray assault following a ruckus over the introduction of the Telangana bill.

Rajagopal, whom the Congress had expelled, has since tendered his resignation and said he would quit politics because he was “hurt” that Telugu people had been divided.

Reddy, another anti-Telangana member, broke the mike of the House secretary general and a computer screen in the “well”.